You've hit the nail on the head. If you are one, once you get into fixing something you refuse to be beaten and you devote inordinate amounts of time and energy to the problem (I'm not including money here 'cos I don't have any :-). But as Robert points out, sometimes you have to call it quits. The trick is knowing when....

BTW Seth, awesome job. It's amazing how people can make stuff like this and not go the last mile to get it working properly. You should think about buying these rework stations and upgrading them, rebadging them and selling them for a profit!

Susan, I totally agree. I guess I just was feeling guilty because I just don't have time for extensive reworks like this one. I did tackle the challenge of rebuilding my XBOX 360 when it suffered a bout of the 'red ring of death' (which fix, knock on wood, is still working). I stretched my poor old microwave a good 10 years after two failures due to lightning strikes (until the keyboard finally gave out totally). And the list goes on. But there does come a time when .... well, it is time to finally say '..that is the end'. Plus I am now retired and time is a bit of something that is not available in copious quantities.

This is the hazard of being a tinkerer? It doesn't make a lot sense, but it keeps you busy and you learn a lot on the way. I just find it amazing that all these Frankenstein's Fix engineers fix stuff that I would just throw away.

Interesting attempt to redesign a 'piece of junk' reflow table. But 'the me who has way too many projects already' was just wondering (other than the challenge) why would one buy a reflow table to repair (again!!) a old PlayStation 3? Well, I guess I do remember some unwise purchases of my own in a similar vein (i.e. spend a lot to accomplish a little) so I guess I give the author a pass on this one. And I did find the design aspect to be interesting.